Ashes in the Cold
by SnowieBearSnarl
Summary: Team RWBY is an elite team of various backgrounds working for the international extrajudicial covert intelligence infrastructure known simply as "Oz". However, when they find themselves burned, betrayed and in the cold, there's only one person they can think of to help them. The legend himself; Michael Westen.


The steady sound of boots against the cheap tile floors filled the narrow, dimly lit hallway as three figures made their way to the only door at its end. Two large men in black suits walked stoically in front of a much more petite woman who wore a calm and confident smile, her silver eyes shining like mirrors even in the low light. She walked with the air of a dominating force that would overpower anything in her way. Despite how she may appear at first blush she was in top physical condition with toned muscles and an athletic body underneath her black tank-top cover in a red leather vest with translucent scarlet chiffon stitched into the lower hem, hanging down to the backs of her knees. Around her waist was a leather belt with a big metal belt buckle holding up her beige cargo pants.

Her gaze shifted from left to right, taking in the details of her environment casually and calmly. The walls were bare concrete, windowless with only a single entrance and a single exit. It was cool but there was no air conditioning that she could hear. _We're probably underground, makes sense. They had me bagged on the way in but I could still hear, there were vehicles outside, I could smell cigarettes pretty strongly when we came into this building but neither of these two smell like smoke so there was at least one person standing guard at the door. They picked me up at the designated meeting point and I was walked about eighty paces so about sixty meters from the entrance. I could hear the fence gate closing behind us so were weren't far from the perimeter. Based on all of that I'd say we're in the center of the compound._

"Hey, don't suppose either of you have a cigarette you could spare? This doesn't feel like a place with a no smoking policy." Her voice carried a distinctive British accent combined with the snarky tone in her words. She brushed back her long black, red tipped hair, moving stray strands from her face. Just as she expected, neither of her escorts responded or even gave any indication that they had heard her.

 _Thick concrete walls, probably sound dampening and doubles as a bomb shelter. This compound is pretty far off the grid so they likely have a generator powering the place with a backup generator in here that kicks on in case of emergencies. This is quite the little fortress, though what else should I expect from someone so high value._ She had to hold herself back from grinning with excitement as they reached the door, her two escorts coming to a stop, one turning to face the girl while the other took out his keys before agonizingly slowly sorting through them to find the right one.

"That's a fire hazard you know?" She smirked playfully, finally receiving some kind of response in the form of an indignant growl.

Finally, with a heavy mechanical jerk he unlocked the door, turning the handle at a glacier's pace likely just to piss her off before pushing it open. A softer white light streamed in from the other side as opened door revealed a lavish suite with soft carpet and soft, quiet classical music humming through the air. However, before she could be ushered in, another man, less bulky and wearing a brand name suit stepped forward with another armed guard at his side.

"Welcome, it's a pleasure to finally meet you Ms. Rose, I'm am Javad, head of security for Mr. Shizari. If you would please leave your effects with our capable security personnel, Mr. Shizari will be with you momentarily." With a courteous smile and a small bow he greeted Ruby before a quick motion of his head compelled the man at his side forward with a small plastic basket.

"Even my phone?" Ruby hummed nonchalantly as she pulled out her things from her pocket which consisted of her cheap burner phone, a half eaten bag of trail mix and loose change. _They already confiscated my weapons when they picked me up. It's a good thing I didn't bring my baby along._

"Yes Ma'am, your things will be returned to you upon your leave, should everything go well." It was a very thinly veiled threat but Ruby cooperated without hesitation, placing her effects into the basket before the guards proceeded to pat her down, taking a little too long for her comfort around her ass and between her legs.

"All clear Sir." Finally, her escort spoke merely to hand her off to his superiors.

"Come, we shouldn't keep him waiting." Javad's smile irritated her immensely but she swallowed down her annoyance and gave a polite smile before walking past her escorts, following the head of security into the bunker suite.

It was built like the nicest rooms at some of the best hotels she had ever stayed at if hotels were built like siege ready fortresses. It had chandeliers, pricy art, top quality furnishings and marble counters, a full kitchen and a bunch of rooms leading to what she was sure were equally ostentatious rooms. _And of course, to complete the evil lair motif, he just has to have the stuffed heads of large endangered animals on the walls._

"Well well well, if it isn't the famous, or should I say infamous Ruby Rose. I must say you are not what I was expecting." A young man addressed her from his comfortable position on his couch with a glass of wine in his hand. He was clean shaven with slicked back black hair and dark brown eyes and dressed as posh and professionally as one would expect from a man in his clout and power.

"Amir Shizari, it's a nice to finally put a face to the name. I assure you that I am capable of exactly everything you've heard and with that in mind, I would like to begin this transaction. We have big plans for your product, otherwise we wouldn't be spending the substantial fortune we are on it." Ruby was calm and amiable she she took her seat across from Amir, glass and metal coffee table sitting between them.

"Of course, but first I must ask, this is quite unusual, what could your organization be planning to do with soviet era anthrax?" Amir set his drink down atop a coaster on the coffee table before leaning back, his eyes never leaving his guest's.

"Even if I wanted to tell you, only Oz knows the big picture, I'm just the middleman here. I give you the money, you give us the weapon, I secure and transport it to its destination." She could already feel the tension in the room rising but even so, she kept her gaze forward and her casual smile unwavering.

"Ah yes, Oz, such an enigmatic character. Are they even a man or merely a name, a fairy-tale? I've heard whispers, rumors of your organization popping up out of the ashes of the fiasco involving James Kendrick and his group. It's been about two years to the date." A chuckled escaped his lips as he splayed out his arms, resting them on the back of the couch as he sank back into the cushions.

"Do you have it marked on your calendar or something?" Everyone in their world knew about the events surrounding James Kendrick and his organization… _and what it took to bring them to their knees._

"Everyone from Russian operatives to drug and arms dealers to organized criminal syndicates has it marked on their calendar. After all, it's not every day that a living legend is finally put in the ground." Amir sat forward, grabbing his glass and raising it to her. "The big bad boogeyman is gone."

"Right…" Ruby had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "Let's get this transaction underway."

"A woman who doesn't like small talk, I can appreciate that. If only my wife were more like you." Amir obviously found himself far more amusing than Ruby did since he kept laughing at his own jokes. "Very well, provide me the account numbers and-"

 **Bang!**

An explosion echoed from the other room and instinctively all eyes turned towards the source of the sound… all except for Ruby who seized the moment, her hand shooting down to her waist, grabbing at her belt buckle and unsheathing a concealed, small white blade from it. In the blink of an eye she lunged forward, throwing her entire body weight at the top of the couch, combined with her momentum she easily knocked it over. In only a few moments of desperate and futile struggling from Amir, he found himself being held very firmly against the smaller girl with an extremely sharp blade to his jugular.

"I wouldn't move, this knife is ceramic. Not a strong as steel but a whole lot sharper." Her voice was soft and playful as she whispered into his ear, holding him up, putting his body between herself and the many guns pointed at her. Every muscle in her body was brimming with tension and excitement as she backed up further and further towards the wall.

"W-what are you doing!? Do you have any idea who you're-"

"Oh shut it! Do you really think I'd go through all this trouble without knowing who I my target was?" She grabbed his tie with her free hand, twisting it around him until it was very slightly cutting off his breathing. _That ought to keep him quiet until-_

Suddenly, the entire room was plunged into pitch darkness. She took that as her cue and began to move, pulling the terrified and reluctant body along with her, keeping a mental map of their positions prior to the power going out. Still, these weren't amateurs and she could hear them moving through the dark. _Come on, any second now would be lovely._

Three dampened shots, the sound suppressed to the point where the bodies falling the the ground made just about as much noise. Then came a flurry of fighting, punches and kicks before muffled chokes and gasps with the sound of liquid spilling onto the floor. Ruby counted the kills as the quickly rose, comparing them to the number she saw just before the lights went out. _She's making good time._

With a mechanical whirring the emergency generator kicked on and with it, the room was bathed in light. Horror painted Amir's face as he beheld the scene before him. A single girl with long black hair and near skin tight black clothes with flexible body armor stood over the bodies littering the floor as she pulled up her night vision goggles revealing her cold and hard amber eyes, a knife in one hand dripping with blood while her gun, an FNX 45 Tactical with its distinctive rectangular suppressor screwed into the barrel, rested at her side in her other hand.

"Good timing Blake!" Ruby's voice was warm and silvery as she grinned with happiness at her friend while effortlessly forcing the man to walk with her towards the bloodstained assassin.

"It was all part of your plan. Still, I could have done without being cramped in hiding all night here. Next time, smuggle me in in something more spacious." Blake sheathed her knife as she returned Ruby's friendly and genuine smile.

"I'll keep that in mind." She shrugged with a smirk. "I'll need my gun and a zip tie and duct tape for him."

"Got it." Around Blake's waist was a sizable belt on which a satchel, magazines and her knife were clipped and her guns were holsters. Reaching behind her she pulled out an iconic and devastating black and silver semi-automatic pistol; Ruby's Desert Eagle.

"Too bad you couldn't sneak my baby in here too, oh well, at least the others are taking good care of her." Ruby took the powerful gun in her small hands, her fingers wrapping around the grip and resting gently on the trigger. "This will do though."

"It's not like this is exactly the best place for your rifle anyway." Blake said absently as the Ruby shoved Amir towards her, first taping his mouth shut before binding his hands together with a very strong ziptie.

"That's never stopped me before." Ruby said as she cocked back her gun, readying it to fire at a moment's notice. _Blake and I didn't get a good look at the compound once we were inside, we'll have to hope that our scouting from beyond the perimeter was sufficient. We staked out this place for a week, hopefully that's enough._

"Fair enough." She shrugged, finishing off his zip tie before pulling her gun out, forcing Amir in front of her. "Weiss' program should kick in by the time we get outside."

"Good, then let's get out of here. I'll take the lead, you cover my back." Ruby stepped forward and gave Amir a shove with the barrel of her gun, forcing him to walk towards the doors she had entered. In another room she could see the basket that once held her confiscated phone now little more than melted shrapnel. _Good job rigging that Yang, it worked perfectly._

"You think the guards out there know anything is up yet?" She gave her pistol a light shake while her finger hovered over the trigger. _Four shots left… better reload before the action starts._

"This place is sound proof, no one heard anything and once that program activates they won't have any clue what's going on before it's too late for them to do anything." Ruby was out in front with Amir as a shield. She was their leader and she always took the front lines rather than needlessly compromising the safety of her team. If anything went wrong, she'd rather it be her body they have to bury than any of theirs.

"There were only three guards upstairs when they brought me in. Assuming they didn't get backup as soon as the power went out we only have them to contend with." No sooner than she finished her though came the sound of a heavy metal door bursting open in front of them, up the stairs leading to the ground floor of the bunker.

"Hey! Drop your weapons now!" In a blur all three pulled out their pistols, aiming them down at Ruby and Blake who were hiding behind their human shield, Ruby holding her gun to his back at such an angle that the powerful fifty caliber round would go straight through him and into one of the men above them.

"Hey, would you mind telling your boys up there to drop their weapons and come down? Just nod or something if you like having two functioning arms." She pressed the barrel of her gun hard into his right shoulder, following the movement of the man above them that she had her aim at. Even through a living target the bullet still had a good chance of hitting at such a close range.

"Hmmm! Hmmm!" Amir nodded frantically, his voice muffled through the tape covering his mouth.

"You heard the man. Come down here and drop your weapons on the floor and stand with your backs against the wall." She kept her eyes on the one in the middle, the only she had her gun aimed at through her hostage's shoulder. He seemed to be the one in charge at the moment. _Three on two, we could kill them, their guns aren't nearly as powerful as mine but we want to take this guy alive. Them not knowing that gives us leverage, if we can talk our way out of this we won't have to create three more bodies._

The man in the lead kept his gun aimed at them while the two behind them did the same. Ruby could see the defiance in his eyes, he wanted to fight, but the desperate mumbling from his boss and their less than ideal position even despite having the higher ground left him reconsidering his desire to fight. With a heavy sigh he slowly lowered his gun to the ground and stood up with his hands up.

"We're coming down, don't shoot." He knew he was beaten, he could risk shooting through his boss but they could. Somehow two operatives took out all his closest personal security and compromised their facility after taking Amir hostage.

"Good, now just come on down nice and easy and stand against the wall with your backs out." She ushered Amir back by his collar while keeping her gun aimed at him while Blake kept her weapon trained on the guards as they stepped off from the stairs.

"You'll never make it out of here." The guard growled as he put his face to the wall along with his buddies, his hands out behind him away from his weapons while Blake made her way over to them, pulling out her zipties from her bag.

"Yes yes, your friends will come and put us down right? I think we can handle it. Blake, tape up their mouths too, we don't need to kill them be we also don't need them shouting for backup." Ruby felt a large wave of relief after they surrendered. _I'm not a fan of needlessly high body counts._

"On it." With a nod Blake relieved them of their weapons and bound their hands before taping their mouths shut.

"Let's move on shall we? I don't want to to keep Yang and Weiss waiting on us." Ruby liked working with Blake, though she was the newest member to their team she quickly became indispensable and just like with the rest of her team, she thought of Blake as family. Their individual backgrounds didn't matter to her and she knew that the stealthy assassin appreciated that considering she defected from a terrorist organization.

"I plugged Weiss' flash drive into their computer system on my way to shut down the power. We don't have much longer before it goes off." She spoke calmly but with urgency as she picked up the guards bladed weapons so they couldn't cut themselves loose quickly.

With a shove she forced Amir to walk, putting him in front while Ruby kept herself behind him and very decidedly in front of Blake while she lagged slightly behind, her gun aimed up, ready to take out any hostiles that threatened her leader as they ascended the stairs. At gunpoint Amir went through the door first while Ruby paused, listening for any sounds that could indicate more guards before reaching out and pulling him in just to the edge of the door, using both as cover she stepped out.

With a quick gesture of her hand she indicated the all clear and moved forward with Blake close kept close to the walls as they made their way to the front door, Blake covering Ruby, her gun pointed to the other side of the building where any threats could come from. The first floor was much less lavish than the bunker, furnished with a cheap rug and couch with a TV for entertainment.

The instant they were at the door leading out the air was filled with the near deafening blare of sirens and alarms from all directions, filling the building they occupied as well as drowning out all other sounds from outside to the point where the floor itself rumbled with the sound. _Time to go!_

Without hesitation Ruby flung open the door and forced Amir out while motioning with her head for Blake to follow. Hot, dry air hit them like a wave as the intense desert sun shined down on the arid sand swept and hilly landscape. The compound was large and surrounded with a razor ribbon topped electric fence. In the distance Ruby could see the compound security scrambling as every single alarm and siren went off at once. _It won't be long before they start looking here where their boss is. We need-_

Her thoughts were cut off by the sound of metal ripping apart on the other side of the compound followed by the barely audible shouts of the men inside as an eighteen wheeler plowed through the fence… on fire! Sparks shot out and the security amassed on the most immediate threat while a small group broke off and started running towards Ruby and Blake. _Crap, it doesn't look like they've spotted us just yet, if we start firing then we're going to have a lot of bodies on our hands and we'll have to retreat back into the bunker._

 **Bang!**

A shot rang out over the sirens and fire, making the men stop and turn as Ruby peered out from behind the door. In the next moment the air was filled with a flurry of bangs as a machine gun rattled off countless shots, sequestering the soldiers, forcing them to seek the source of the fire while taking shelter. The bullets rushed past, slamming into the ground and into the buildings but leaving the soldiers unharmed but very much occupied. _Good job Weiss!_

Ruby grabbed Amir and started running with Blake following, her gun pointed towards the hostiles that Weiss was pinning down, making she no stragglers would get close enough to harm them. As the ran towards the other side of the fence a black SUV with tinted windows pulled up and a girl with long, stunning blonde hair and lilac eyes jumped out carrying a long metal rod with a tube running into the vehicle. With a wild grin the end of the long rod set ablaze with an intense fire, the thermal lance cutting through the thin metal of the fence like it was nothing, creating an opening for them to run through before she shut down the flame and pulled her favorite toy from her back; a modified, fully automatic Saiga 12k shotgun. Aiming it behind Ruby and Blake, ready to turn anything that dared threaten them into a puddle.

"Good work Yang!" Ruby could finally hear her own voice as they ran through the still hot metal hole in the fence, their leader forcefully grabbing Amir and spinning around, walking backwards towards the vehicle with her gun to his head while Blake and Yang got in. _Not to just throw him into the boot, grab Weiss and be one our way!_

Keeping her eyes to the roofs of the buildings in the compound, watching for any snipers she backpedaled towards the rear of their SUV, the back door popping open before Ruby threw him inside, flinging herself closely behind him and shutting the back door. The engine revved and cool are gave her a comfortable reprieve from the heat as she crawled over their bound captive, making her way to the front seat.

"The plan went off without a hitch, I know I said it before but I love this job! Just wish I could have gone in there with you guys but someone had to get you out." Yang grinned as she put on her sunglasses while Ruby got situated herself beside her with Blake in the seat directly behind her leader.

"Blake, hand me my baby, I'll cover Weiss!" Ruby reached into her glove-box, pulling out a heavy belt lined with bullets, magazines, a karambit knife and a longer blade, another burner phone and a black box sealed tight at the back. She secured her effects around her waist and reached back just as Blake handed Ruby her "baby".

It was a beautiful customized anti-material and anti-personnel rifle; the Accuracy International AS50 semi-auto sniper. She smiled fondly at it, gently rubbing off any dirt or dust as they drove around the compound. It was already loaded and ready to fire, all she had to do was take a shot and anything she pointed it at was finished. _I never miss with my baby. One shot, that's all I'll need._

Ruby rolled down the window just enough, propping the barrel of her gun atop it while she took her aim, her finger hovering over the trigger and her back resting against Yang's muscular shoulder. She looked down the barrel, watching the landscape blur past as they drove very quickly down the rough, unpaved road. Weiss sat perched atop a hill, shooting down from the high ground, keeping their enemies pinned. _One-hundred meters, one shot with an incendiary round, that's all I need._

With a long, deep, steadying breath Ruby slowed her pulse and focused, tuning everything out as her target came into her sights. The world seemed to freeze for her in that instant, in that moment, as if time distorted with every milimeter her trigger gave into her squeeze until…

 **Booooom!**

A massive fireball erupted from the compound behind the men hiding and firing blindly at Weiss as Ruby's bullet ripped through the metal of the propane tank and the incendiary ignited the highly flammable gas. The wave of pressure and heat sent the enemy combatants to the ground as shrapnel sprayed out with the fire.

"Nice shooting!" Yang whistled as they came to a sudden stop, Ruby pulling her rifle back in and closing her window while Blake flung open the passenger door on the driver's side.

A girl with very short white hair dressed in white and appropriate desert camo and pants and a white top covered by a heavy bullet resistant vest ran down the hill while still laying down suppressing fire from her H&K G36. She was calm, efficient and tactical as she fired in bursts, aiming as well as she could while maintaining a fast dash towards the safety of their vehicle before diving in, Blake slamming the door behind her.

"Go!" At Ruby's command Yang took off at full speed down the dirt road. They could hear the small caliber bullets bouncing off their well armored vehicle, however, as they got further and further away, the shooting stopped… they had made it.

"Everything appears to have gone as planned." Weiss sighed with relief, dropping her gun down on the floor before falling back in her seat, relieved everyone made it out okay.

"We have Amir, now we just rendevous with JNPR, pass him off and the is mission complete!" Ruby seemed very pleased as she stroked her rifle with a satisfied smile.

"Wonder what Oz wants with him though? I mean, this guy is an arms dealer with serious connections to powerful people in Moscow and the old guys from the Soviet era." Weiss looked back at their captive who looked scared out of his mind. "Don't suppose you have your girlfriend looking into this?"

"No need, I'm sure she's busy with other things, though she did tell us to be careful with this guy." A small laugh escaped her lips as her silver gaze turned towards the endless blue sky. _I wonder what the sky in Moscow looks like right now, if she's even there._

"Besides, you know Oz keeps our teams compartmentalized to restrict access to information. We know exactly what we need and we just have to have faith that Oz will do the right thing, it hasn't steered us wrong so far." Blake wasn't exactly a fan of how Oz operated either… _But it's better than the White Fang._

"Still, he was selling weaponized anthrax. That's a very serious threat, we should have taken it and-"

"I'm sorry, did you want to be dodging bullets with enough biological weapon to kill tens of thousands of people? Not in my car!" Yang growled as she stepped on the gas, accelerating and hoping that those bullets didn't do too much damage to the exterior.

"Yang is right, we did our job and we have the target. Everything beyond this is up to Oz." Ruby gave a warm, reassuring smile to Weiss in the back seat. "Just relax, once we can hand off Amir we get to debrief and then relax until our next mission. I'm thinking we play the part of tourists while we're here, I kinda want to check out the Milad Tower, it's supposed to have a really pretty view at night."

"A breather does sound nice, this is our third mission in a row without a break." A subtle grin formed from Blake's lips as she stretched out, losing the tensity in her muscles and letting herself relax.

"I hear the food scene in Tehran is pretty good, we should grab dinner while we're there." Yang was always eager to try out new foods wherever they went and just liked having a good time. She helped bring the mood of the entire team up and they loved her for it. She worked special forces back in China but didn't leave her homeland too often, her work with Oz sent her all over the world.

"My treat, for a job well done from all of you." Their leader was happy that her team was happy and they deserved at least a full course meal at the fine restaurant after all their hard work. _We've been in the field almost non stop for months but after this we get some time to unwind. It's been fun though and I feel honored to be leading this team, we've become so close that we don't really separate post mission. We're the best Oz has because of our teamwork, not our individual skills._

 **Bzzzzz-Bzzzzz-Bzzzzz!**

"My phone…" In an instant Ruby's voice became as cold as ice and her big silver eyes grew wide as she reached for the burner phone at her belt. "Thistle."

"She's seriously calling you now? We're kinda in the middle of a mission boss." Yang didn't even try to hide her displeasure, she didn't wholly trust Thistle despite how long she and Ruby had been together. _We've been on a team for almost five years, Ruby is like a sister to me. I didn't like her getting in bed with a Russian spy then and I still don't like it much._

"You don't understand, this is our emergency line. She wouldn't be calling if it weren't important." With panic and fear in her words she answered the call, putting the phone to her ear. "Thistle is everything alright? What's going on?!"

"Ruby you can't meet up with JNPR! Stop your car now! I'm on my way! Oz isn't what you think!"

 **Click!**

"Thistle? Thistle!" Ruby growled, her heart now pounding in her chest and her blood running cold. She'd never heard such desperation and fear in her lover's voice. Thistle was former Spetsnaz and was currently in the FSB, she didn't spook easily and yet… _Wait, did she say she was on her way? She's here? In Iran?!_

"Ruby, what's wrong?" Weiss leaned forward but Ruby was frozen, staring at her phone in her hand, her lips ever so slightly parted.

"Boss!" A bark from Yang was all it took to shake their leader from her stupor.

"Stop the car now!" The urgency and panic in Ruby's voice sent a chill down the collective spines of the entire team.

"Swerve!" Weiss lunged forward, grabbing the wheel from Yang and giving a very hard and sudden turn as she braced herself for what was about to come.

It all happened so fast. A flash of light and a deafening sound and then the shockwave it like a train ramming into the side of their SUV. Their car was flipped on its side and the bullet resistant glass cracked and shattered under the immense forces before the skidded along the dirt road, their team being thrown around inside like rag dolls until they came a screeching stop. They had hit a landmine, but Weiss' quick actions saved their lives.

"Is- is everyone still breathing? Sound off." Ruby slowly came to her senses, her head ringing and her body aching everywhere, but she was alive, bleeding from one side from shrapnel that got through the door but her arm was still functional.

"I'm alive." Yang groaned, pushing Ruby off of her as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"I'm okay." Blake sighed from on top of Weiss, their bodies thrown together in the crash , each protecting the other, Blake's body shielding Weiss from the glass that rained down on them and Weiss cushioning Blake's body against the impact.

"Same here." Weiss' head was bleeding and she was dizzy, but she was alive, giving a shaky thumbs up to her team as she and Blake extricated themselves from each other.

"Great, since we're not dead does anyone want to tell me what's happening and who I have to kill for hurting my car?" Their driver sat up, grabbing her Saiga 12k from beneath her seat while Ruby managed to hold on tight to her baby through the crash. Behind them they could hear guns being locked and loaded by their remaining teammates.

"Thistle, something was wrong. She said she'll be here soon and that…" She didn't want to believe it was true, she wanted to convince herself that she had heard wrong. "She said that Oz wasn't what we think and that we can't meet up with JNPR."

"Think she knows something we don't?" Weiss and Blake helped each other up as their assassin spoke, their guns in hand as they tried to push the now skyward back passenger door open.

"Seems like it, she sounded really worried on the phone." Ruby wiped her forehead as Yang helped her up, both crouching atop the door that was facing groundwards. "Yang, get that door open and help Weiss and Blake out, I'll cover you from here."

"Yes Ma'am!" With that, Yang pushed herself up, one hand steadying her while the other held her shotgun. The door was stuck, no matter how hard she tried to push on it it wouldn't budge, jammed closed by the explosion. _Well, I think I know how to get you to open up._

"Cover your ears people!" After less than an instant of disbelief they all obeyed right before Yang unloaded her extremely powerful shotgun at point black into the door, five shells firing off in a in a matter of seconds, ripping into the metal before she rammed her shoulder into the door and this time, it gave to her strength, flying open with her unique brand of persuasion.

"Someone's coming! Hurry and get Weiss and Blake out!" Ruby growled as a tan armored vehicle descended from a nearby hill. _An Oshkosh, modified… JNPR._

Yang scrambled out, quickly ducking behind the underside of the car before popping back up, climbing up over the vehicle before pulling their door open with much more ease than her own. One after the other she helped Weiss and Blake out while frantically looking back at the fast approaching vehicle whose fifty caliber machine gun was now pointed at them with a woman behind it with long red hair and green eyes dressed in a standard uniform as set by her leader, the combat wear of the US army couple with heavy body armor.

 **Bang!**

A deafening shot rang out and glass exploded outward from the windshield of their SUV as Ruby pulled the trigger on her rifle, the immense concussive force sending a shockwave through the metal body while the bullet ripped through the air. An instant later a fireball ignited, the devastatingly power round penetrating the armor of the vehicle's side like it was nothing before ripping straight through Pyrrha's lower leg… all without even looking through her scope.

The vehicle swerved, putting its front between Ruby and the people within the armored vehicle while Pyrrha gritted her teeth and turned the heavy machine towards the smoking SUV. The front was modified with heavy armor protecting the engine block, even her incendiaries weren't penetrating. _I don't want to kill them but if they threaten my team… I have no choice._

"Stay away from her!" A defiant battle cry with a hard as steel Russian accent rang out over the sound of a powerful engine as a motorcycle came to a screeching stop beside the wreckage of the SUV. She dismounted from her bike and took off her helmet, carelessly tossing it on the ground as she walked boldly forward past Weiss, Blake and Yang. She was a tiny woman with shoulder length, apple red hair tied in a braid on one side of her head, she wore a short vest covering half her torso over a bullet resistant vest. She had a strip of purple cloth tied around her upper right arm while a chain belt held her cargo pants around her waist. Her eyes were hard lavender, narrowed and focused as she reached to her back.

"Thistle! Don't kill them!" Ruby shouted as loud as her sore lungs would allow, firing her fifth and final round towards Pyrrha, hitting her in her shoulder before she could unleash the fifty caliber machine gun on Ruby and her team.

"Not even here for five seconds and you're already tying my hands. You're such a pain." With a playful smirk she pulled out her favorite weapon, an RG-6 revolver grenade launcher painted all black with six grenades already loaded. One shot, aimed beside the armored vehicle and the explosion rocked it, the concussive wave forcing the gunner to retreat back into the relative safety of their Oshkosh.

"Weiss, Yang, keep them pinned with Thistle, flank them while I take out the engine!" She could already hear them revving up their engine, but she wasn't about to let them escape. With long, steadying exhale she dropped her clip from her rifle and reached to her side, towards the heavy, lead lined box on her belt. _Only three hundred in the world and I have five of them… I better make this shot count._

Ruby plunged the cartridge into her gun and loaded the heavy and crushingly powerful round into the chamber. She pressed the butt of her gun against her shoulder, bracing for the recoil as she looked through her scope, creating a mental map of the engine from memory while she aimed. _Forgive me…_

She squeezed the trigger just as JNPR began to move. Glass again exploded out as though it weren't even there and the bullet blitzed downward towards its target. Unlike her armor piercing incendiaries, this shot sheared through the thick steel like it was nothing before ripping apart the engine block, her aim perfect and her mapping precise. The engine stopped and smoke began to billow out from it. Where her standard incendiary failed, her depleted uranium prototype fifty caliber round succeeded with terrifying ease.

Meanwhile, her team flanked JNPR, Yang and Weiss taking point while Thistle and Blake backed them up, their pistols less capable than Yang's shotgun or Weiss' machine gun under the circumstances. Ruby ejected her bullet and her clip before putting them back in their place, she now had only four remaining. With their enemies trapped she locked in another incendiary clip and crawled out of the wreckage, hopping down to the dusty ground to join her team.

Slowly and methodically the encroached, Ruby hanging back with her sniper rifle, watching enemy's movements within their vehicle through her scope. If anyone of them tried to make a move, she would do what she had to do to protect her team, her aim on particular young man with blonde hair cradling the gunman in his arms that Ruby had shot twice. Thistle and Blake fanned out on both sides of the vehicle, their guns out while Yang and Weiss got in close, right up to the doors.

"Come on out, we have you beat and Pyrrha needs medical attention. We won't hurt you if you give up without a fight." She waited for a response, keeping beside the door, out of the way enough for it to open and while still giving her some cover if any fire came from within. Ruby approached down the middle keeping her aim steady as she walked and her crosshairs trained on Jaune, the leader of JNPR.

"Okay." A reluctant and deeply angry voice spoke as the door cracked open. "We surrender."

The tension quickly fell as team JNPR left the vehicle, throwing their weapons to the ground while Jaune carried Pyrrha in his arms. The four of them, Nora, a girl with short orange hair blue eyes, Ren, a tall and muscular man with a streak of pink in his long black hair, Jaune, a well built man stained with blood and Pyrrha who was very rapidly losing blood from her two very bad wounds above her ankle and in her right shoulder, they all surrendered while Blake move into their Oshkosh to grab their zip ties.

"Yang, take Pyrrha and do what you can for her. Blake, after you tie those three up get the first aid kit. Weiss, go back to our car and salvage anything you can find." Her muscles grew weak as adrenaline ebbed and the clarity of battle was overtaken by the fog of the unknown. With an exhausted sigh she let the barrel of her rifle rest in the hot dirt while her finger moved from the trigger. _What the hell is happening?_

"You're bleeding." A gentle voice spoke up beside her, the siberian chill replaced by tenderness and worry as Thistle grabbed the top of Ruby's jacket, slowly and carefully pulling it off her her, baring her arms to show the damage the mine had done. Three shards of metal were lodged in her arm while another two found themselves embedded in her rib cage.

"Thank you for showing up when you did, you probably saved our lives." A soft laugh left her lips as Thistle untied the strip of purple cloth from her own arm, tying it above Ruby's wounds as tight as she could to stem the bleeding.

"Oh I definitely saved your lives. I think you you owe me more than a thank you." Her voice became playful and flirtatious immediately before giving a very hard tug on her cloth around Ruby's arm, making the fearless leader wince in pain.

"I'll have to think of something fun then." She tried to keep Thistle from worrying but without the action taking her mind from her wounds, she was beginning to feel everything… and it hurt like hell. _I may be worse off than I thought._

"You have shrapnel in your chest. You need to go to a hospital." The worry and compassion in her words and in her big, shimmering eyes was palpable. Even though she was losing blood and her fingers were beginning to go numb, Ruby could still feel the warmth of Thistle's small hand wrapping around her own.

"Not as badly as Pyrrha." Yang's dark tone forced Ruby's eyes from Thistle's and, although she didn't want to, she parted from her girlfriend, her fingers lingering as longs they could before they parted.

"How bad is she?" Ruby forced herself to retain her composure despite the pain, she was in charge and her team needed her at one-hundred percent, even if she wasn't.

"I'm no doctor but… it's bad." Yang kneeled beside Pyrrha's limp body as it lay in the dirt, pools of blood staining the parched dirt crimson as her breaths grew weaker and weaker. Her ankle was mangled, barely hanging on by a bundle of connective tissue no thicker than an American Quarter while her shoulder had a gaping wound going straight through it with shrapnel buried into her flesh from her collarbone to her bicep.

"Is there anything we can do for her here?" Blake opened up the first aid kit, pulling out as much gauze as she could and looking pleadingly at Yang. Unlike everyone else there, Blake had no formal training and thus, no basic first aid knowledge that she was confident enough to use without input.

"Ma'am, if I'm being honest…" Yang turned from Pyrrha, looking up at her leader. As soon as Ruby saw that heartbroken resignation in Yang's eyes she knew the answer. "The nearest hospital is fifty miles away at least. Even if she could get helicoptered out of here it would take too long for them to get there. She needs blood and emergency surgery or I don't think she'll last ten more minutes."

"I see…" Her heart felt like it had turned to frozen lead as she softly closed her eyes, reaching to her belt before pulling out the karambit knife that Thistle had given her a year after they met. The blade was sharp and served her well whenever she needed it. _I'm so sorry Pyrrha…_

Her veins filled with ice as she walked forward, leaving Thistle's side, dropping her rifle on the ground as she switched off her knife to her good hand. Behind Ruby her girlfriend picked up her baby, the gun she knew Ruby loved so much, holding it tenderly as she watched Ruby walk past Pyrrha, over to their captives… to Jaune.

"She's not going to make it." With a solemn tone she cut his zip tie with her knife, freeing his hands. "She loved you, go be by her side now and when you're done… let her go peacefully. She doesn't deserve to suffer."

"Oz told us to eliminate you. Whatever you did, you're Oz's enemy now. You got away this time but I swear… I swear for Pyrrha that I'll see you burn for this." His tear filled eyes burned with unbridled rage and hatred and his voice trembled with animosity. Every muscle in his body was burning, screaming at him to do whatever it took to kill the woman in front of him… but Pyrrha was more important.

"Yang, confiscate their weapons and throw them in our SUV… then burn it." As Ruby finished giving her command Jaune pushed her aside with his shoulder, making way over to Pyrrha, her life fading fast as he collapsed beside her, cradling her tight against his chest as his tears fell down onto her face.

"Yes Ma'am." She hated this, but she knew Ruby did too. JNPR was their closest contact at Oz, they were friends… as close as they could be given the way teams are kept separate for the most part. They did missions together, they fought together and risked their lives for each other in the past. _Why would Oz betray us… why would they send JNPR to fight us? Did they really expect them to win or was it supposed to be a suicide mission? I just don't know anymore._

"Weiss, keep an eye on them and don't let any of them move." Their tech specialist gave a weak nod, the pain in her eyes as they drifted back to Pyrrha and Jaune was almost too much for Ruby to bear. "Come Thistle, we should talk in private."

"Fine but then you will let me use the medical kit to treat your wounds until we get to the hospital." She wasn't going to let it go, no matter how brave a face Ruby put on, Thistle could still tell she was holding in a lot of pain.

"Okay, you win. We'll talk then I'll let you do whatever you want to me." Thistle being by her side was about the only thing holding her together once her back was turned from her team, her girlfriend even managing to bring a frail smile to her lips as they walked past the wreckage of their SUV, moving out of earshot of their enemies before coming to a stop.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning." Thistle took a long, deep breath, drawing on her tumultuous memories of everything that had happened to bring here to Ruby's side in this sun baked landscape in the Middle East.

"I was assigned to investigate the deaths of two Russian diplomats, one in Brazil and one in China. As I dug deeper into the money trails and lives of the deceased I noticed… irregularities. Accounts and names that linked to very dangerous people and a genocidal land grab in Central America that's when I stumbled upon the man you were tasted to capture, it didn't take much to figure out what your objective was with Amir. I was just beginning to see a very disturbing pattern and then… I was burned." Thistle rested her hands in her pocket, digging for a lighter and her cigarettes, pulling one out by her lips before igniting the paper and tobacco and taking a long, deep breath of the fragrant smoke.

"You think Oz wanted to use Amir to get his connections, supplying very dangerous weapons to very dangerous men?" If it had been anyone else, if it had been any other situation, she wouldn't have believed it… _But this is Thistle and Jaune said that we're all now enemies of Oz. If Oz knew Thistle was onto them and knew about my relationship with Thistle…_

"I think so. There's very likely much more going on that we don't even know about but Oz is not what it seems. I left Moscow with everything I could take and came to Iran in as quickly as I could hoping I would make it in time." With Ruby's rifle still held in one arm Thistle pulled her half finished cigarette out, holding it out to her girlfriend who accepted with a thankful half smile.

"So the real question is, what do we do now?" Ruby took a drag off her cigarette, tasting Thistle's saliva on the filter, her eyes shifting up to Yang who had finished loading the empty weapons into their wrecked vehicle, Amir Shizari kneeling on the ground, banged up and his hands still bound.

"We need help." Thistle admitted with a pleased grin on her lips. "Someone who is accustomed to dealing with burned spies."

"You mean someone who has experience taking down multinational extrajudicial covert intelligence infrastructures?" Ruby grinned as she quickly caught onto what Thistle was implying.

"Someone skilled and capable with a good team." The car behind them burst into flames as Yang threw a flare into the accelerant soaked vehicle, the flickering fire reflecting in Ruby's silver eyes.

"I guess we're going to Miami then." Only fools thought he was really dead, and Ruby was no fool.

"I'll follow your lead. As skilled as your team is, I don't trust your safety to anyone more than me." Thistle couldn't help but give a soft chuckle, the thought of her, a former Russian intelligence agent, looking him, the irony was too much.

"He won't be easy to track down, but I think we can manage." A glimmer of hope, a goal, that's all she needed to pick her team back up, give them a direction, and take down anything that gets in their way. Ruby looked up to Yang who held her gun up to Amir's head, looking coldly at Ruby, waiting for her command. Their leader's smile faded and her eyes dulled as she gave a solemn but decisive nod. _Well Michael Westen, we'll be meeting soon_.

 **Bang!**


End file.
